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Intermediate Language Varieties: Koinai and regional standards in Europe
Edited by Massimo Cerruti and Stavroula Tsiplakou
[Studies in Language Variation 24] 2020
► pp. 183–201

Chapter 8
The role of interdialectal forms in the formation of koinai

Sociolinguistic aspects

| Universidad de La Laguna

The study of the changes that are taking place in European dialects reveals the existence of opposing tendencies: convergent, leading to homogenisation, and divergent, promoting diversity. This paper aims to analyse a case of dialect divergence in a speech community in the Canary Islands through the study of a series of linguistic and social factors that constrain the alternation between two phonetic forms: the lax and tense variants of the plosive palatal /c/, lax /c/ being the traditional form and tense /c/ being the innovative variant. The new form, [cʃ], can be considered as an interdialectal or hybrid variant, since it contains features from the corresponding standard form, /tʃ/, and the vernacular one, /c/. The analysis of sociolinguistic factors enables a more precise understanding of the way in which the hybrid variant contributes to delaying the language homogenisation observed in other levels of the dialect.

Keywords: dialect contact, interdialectalism, language change, sociolinguistic variation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodological aspects: The sample
  • 3.Structural implications of the lax/tense alternation
  • 4.Theoretical aspects: Constraining factors
    • 4.1Internal variables
      • 4.1.1Stress
      • 4.1.2Word position
      • 4.1.3Word frequency
    • 4.2External variables
    • 4.3Attitudes
    • 4.4Individual analysis
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 22 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.24.08alm
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